Unsupervised Pelvic Floor Training
As we saw above, unsupervised pelvic floor muscle training is not the recommended best approach for treating stress incontinence, but for some women it can still be very effective.
Importantly, if you do not see an improvement in your symptoms, or your symptoms worsen, I would recommend you take a break from your home exercise efforts and seek out the guidance of a pelvic health physiotherapist. If you suffer from mild to moderate stress incontinence there is still an excellent chance that appropriate cueing and strengthening can significantly reduce or eliminate your symptoms.
Here are some of pelvic floor strengthening tools pulled directly from the toolbox of pelvic floor physiotherapists that can help you stop stress incontinence:
KEGELS
How to stop stress incontinence with Kegels:
KEGEL DEVICES
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Prevent And Treat Chronic Conditions
Many chronic conditions can also affect your bladder. For example, if you have uncontrolled diabetes, there may be sugar in your urine, which can increase urinary leakage. Also, untreated vascular disease and other conditions can cause damage to the nerves to your bladder.
Making sure these diseases are controlled may prevent worsening of bladder function over time. If you have any urinary incontinence, talk with your doctor, says Dr. Garmon. They can help you find the cause of your incontinence and find a treatment that works best for you.
Where To Find Insurance
If youve been prescribed intermittent catheters or incontinence supplies as part of your bladder management program, 180 Medical is here for you.
Just contact us or give us a call at 1-877-688-2729 to talk to one of our friendly experts. Were ready to provide the supplies you need.
Disclaimer: This blog should not be used in place of medical or professional nutritionists advice. Please consult with your physician or other treating healthcare professional to discuss what you may or may not want to include in your diet, based on your individual needs and concerns.
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Kidney Health Can Be Influenced By The Foods You Eat
- Instead of processed foods, opt for fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Eat a low-sodium diet. If you have high blood pressure, protein in your urine, edema, or difficulty breathing, you should decrease your salt intake. It is suggested that you consume less sodium every day.
- If you have moderate-to-advanced renal disease, limit your protein intake . A high-protein diet, which is popular for weight loss, maybe healthy for those with normal kidneys, but it can place a strain on kidneys that arent working well.
- A diet that is excessively low in protein, on the other hand, might induce muscle loss and leave you fragile. It is important to discuss about your nutrition needs with a specialist doctor or healthcare professional.
Common Bladder Problems And When To Seek Help
Bladder problems can disrupt day-to-day life. When people have bladder problems, they may avoid social settings and have a harder time getting tasks done at home or at work. Common bladder problems include urinary tract infections, urinary incontinence, and urinary retention.
Some signs of a bladder problem may include:
- Inability to hold urine or leaking urine
- Needing to urinate more frequently or urgently
- Cloudy urine
- Pain or burning before, during, or after urinating
- Trouble starting or having a weak stream while urinating
- Trouble emptying the bladder
If you experience any of these symptoms, talk to your health care provider.
Treatment for bladder problems may include behavioral and lifestyle changes, exercises, medications, surgery, or a combination of these treatments and others. For more information on treatment and management of urinary incontinence, visit Urinary Incontinence in Older Adults.
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Why Is The Bladder Important
Your urinary system or bladder is essential because it filters extra fluid and wastes from your bloodstream, removing them from your body. When your kidneys are functioning normally, they:
Prevent excess fluid and waste buildup in your body.
Produce blood pressure-regulating hormones.
Keep your electrolyte levels like phosphates and potassium stable.
Keep your bones strong.
Produce red blood cells.
Your bladder, urethra and ureters move your urine from your kidneys and then store it until it’s time to release it from your body.
Ways An Effective Prostate Supplement Can Improve Quality Of Life
Many men with enlarged prostates have to wake up multiple times per night to use the bathroom. This can mean poorer quality sleep, which takes a toll on almost every aspect of our lives. A good prostate supplement can and limit the number of times you need to wake up.
An enlarged prostate can mean more times having to urinate, but also a weaker, less controllable stream. Sometimes urgency becomes less noticeable, and leakage can result. A quality prostate supplement can help maintain urinary sensitivity, strengthen your stream, and better control when you urinate.
Frequent urination often puts limitations on what we can do, like trips in the car, sports games, meetings at work, and dinners with family. An effective prostate supplement can lengthen the time spent between bathroom trips by supporting better bladder emptying, improved comfort, and reduced urgency.
Being romantic can be difficult when dealing with an enlarged prostate, and libido can be reduced. A quality prostate supplement can help maintain a healthy libido and allow for easier romantic time.
Today, over half of all men over age 50 struggle with the effects of an enlarged prostate, so its no wonder the market is flooded with supplements making big promises about relief from frequent urination.
However, not all supplements are created equally. Many brands will cut corners, filling their supplements with harmful additives and using ineffective ingredients or weak dosages.
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Features You Must Avoid
The market is filled with so-called “prostate fixes” that include a wide array of herbs and botanicals. However many of these ingredients lack scientific evidence that they do much of anything. What’s worse, many of these botanicals may contain unstudied chemicals that can have unknown long-term effects. That’s why we suggest only ever choosing a prostate supplement that has been specifically formulated by a medical professional.
The studies behind saw palmetto are hugely promising, though sourcing this botanical has proven challenging. Because it’s notoriously in short supply, an unfortunate trend of fake saw palmetto has become prevalent. This means that a majority of saw palmetto products in the United States could be completely ineffective. The only true way to ensure there is real saw palmetto in your supplement is if it is verified by the non-profit United States Pharmacopeia . That’s why we suggest only choosing a supplement that contains USP-verified USPlus® Saw Palmetto.
This cheap filler is used to help bind ingredients together and lubricate the supplement so it doesnt gum up when it is run through the manufacturing machines. Magnesium stearate adds no nutritional value and can become toxic to your system.
How To Do Kegels To Prevent Incontinence
To get started: Find the right muscles. To identify your pelvic floor muscles, stop urination in midstream. Perfect your technique. To do Kegels, imagine you are sitting on a marble and tighten your pelvic muscles as if youre lifting the marble. Maintain your focus. For best results, focus on tightening only your pelvic floor muscles. Repeat three times a day.
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Tips For Keeping Your Bladder Healthy
Is Overactive Bladder Curable
The good news for those suffering from an overactive bladder is that its a very common and sometimes treatable condition. For medical advice, please see your doctor or another prescribing healthcare professional.
However, outside of whatever treatment plan you and your doctor decide on together, its possible you may be able to better manage your overactive bladder with a few subtle lifestyle and dietary changes.
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What Happens When You Dont Take Care Of Your Urinary System
There is a decent amount of undesirable conditions that can develop in the renal system when urological health is ignored. Adopting the habits described above will significantly reduce the risk of these aggravating issues from forming and intensifying. The following examples list the potential complications that have direct relations to the lack of proper care to the urinary system.
What You Can Do: Drink Plenty Of Liquids
It helps clear out harmful things like bacteria and may help prevent bladder cancer by flushing out certain chemicals. And if you don’t drink enough, your urine will have less water in it, and that can irritate your bladder. But not all liquids are the same — caffeine and alcohol can irritate your bladder. Water is always your best bet. Talk to your doctor about how much you should drink each day.
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Am I At A Higher Risk Of Incontinence At An Older Age
Your body constantly changes throughout your life. As you age, the muscles that support your pelvic organs can weaken. This means that your bladder and urethra have less support often leading to urine leakage. Your risk for developing incontinence as you age might be higher if you have a chronic health condition, have given birth to children, went through menopause, have an enlarged prostate or have had prostate cancer surgery. Its important to talk to your healthcare provider over time about the risks of incontinence and ways you can manage it without interference to your daily life.
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Find Your Pelvic Floor Muscles
Overactive bladder is one common cause of bladder control problems, especially among women. Doing regular Kegel exercises can help treat this condition. These exercises also called pelvic floor muscle exercises.
Kegel exercises are relatively easy to do. But before you can start, you need to find your pelvic floor muscles. The next time you urinate, try to stop your flow of urine midstream. The muscles you use to do that are your pelvic floor muscles.
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Be Aware Of The Amount Of Otc Pills You Take
If you regularly take over-the-counter pain medication, you may be causing kidney damage. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs , including ibuprofen and naproxen, can damage your kidneys if you take them regularly for chronic pain, headaches, or arthritis.
People with no kidney issues who take the medicine occasionally are likely in the clear. However, if you use these medicines daily, you could be risking your kidneys health. Talk with your doctor about kidney-safe treatments if youre coping with pain.
If youre at high risk of kidney damage or kidney disease, its a good idea to have regular kidney function tests. The following people may benefit from regular screening:
- people who are over 60 years old
- people who were born at a low birth weight
- people who have cardiovascular disease or have family with it
- people who have or have a family history of high blood pressure
- people who are obese
- people who believe they may have kidney damage
A regular kidney function test is a great way to know your kidneys health and to check for possible changes. Getting ahead of any damage can help slow or prevent future damage.
What Is Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate
GFR is a formula that takes into account your creatinine, age, race, and gender to determine how well your kidneys are functioning. Glomeruli are microscopic filters found in the kidneys that aid in the removal of toxins from the bloodstream. The estimated glomerular filtration rate , which is dependent on your body size, evaluates how much blood these filters clean every minute. eGFR is frequently included in the basic metabolic panel of a standard blood test.
The estimated glomerular filtration rate is used by doctors to identify if you have kidney disease and, if so, at what stage. The ability of your kidneys to filter toxins or waste from your blood is measured by eGFR. A low number could suggest renal failure, which would necessitate dialysis or a transplant.
There are treatments for Lower GFR, whether it is any treatment methods, Ayurvedic treatment to lower GFR can be based on some herbal medications, diet management, daily exercise, and yoga practice. When you have a high GFR, and you are not aware of this, then in the longer term, it can seriously affect kidney disease.
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Tips To Get Your Bladder Under Control
Take control of your bladder
Do you find yourself struggling to make it to the bathroom in time? Urinary incontinence is a common condition. Your doctor can help you understand whats causing it and recommend a treatment plan.
Lifestyle changes can also help get your bladder under control. Learn about six steps you can take to reduce your risk of accidents and help you get back to enjoying everyday activities, leak-free.
When Things Go Wrong
A little more than 1 in 10 Americans over the age of 20 show evidence of kidney disease. Some forms of kidney disease are progressive, meaning the disease gets worse over time. When your kidneys can no longer remove waste from blood, they fail.
Waste buildup in your body can cause serious problems and lead to death. To remedy this, your blood would have to be filtered artificially through dialysis, or you would need a kidney transplant.
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The Numbers Behind Womens Bladder Health
It may not be surprising to know that women are prone to urinary tract infections and incontinence. In fact, women are 30 times more likely to develop a UTI over their male counterparts. 1 in 3 women experience the pain and discomfort of a UTI before the age of 24, proving that urinary tract issues are not exclusive to older women. Due to large life events such as childbirth or menopause, a staggering 72% of middle-aged women also experience loss of bladder control at some point in their life.
While these statistics may seem worrisome, there are preventative measures, as well as treatment options, available to combat the side effects of any urologic problems you may encounter. The following tips and tricks are easy lifestyle changes that can improve bladder health.
What Are The Specific Symptoms Of Overactive Bladder
Overactive bladder represents a collection of symptoms that can include:
- Urinary urgency: This is a failure to be able to postpone the need to urinate. When you feel you need to urinate, you have a limited amount of time to get to a bathroom.
- Frequency of urination: People who experience this symptom need to urinate very often. Typically its an increase in the number of times you urinate compared to what you previously experienced.
- Urge incontinence: In this case, there can be a leakage of urine when you get the urge to urinate.
- Nocturia: This symptom is characterized by the need to get up and urinate at least two times each night.
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Learn How To Do A Kegel
The first step in dealing with occasional bladder leakage is all about identifying and engaging your pelvic floor muscles. To do this, youll practice a kegel. You may have heard of this incognito move, as its easy to perform throughout he day without anyone being the wiser. Never done one? Well explain how.
- To identify your pelvic floor muscles, engage the muscles you would to stop urination midstream. These are your pelvic floor muscles.
- Try tightening and relaxing those muscles for five seconds at a time then work up to 10 seconds at a time.
- Breathe freely as you tighten and relax.
Youre kegel-ing, baby! The Mayo Clinic says kegel exercises can be done during pregnancy or after childbirth to try and prevent urinary incontinence. Now that you know how to kegel, aim for at least three sets of 10 kegels per day. Remember, they are an invisible exercise so you can do them any time, anywhere! Do them at a stoplight. Do them washing dishes. Do them standing in line at a store. Done consistently, the kegel can significantly strengthen your pelvic floor muscles and put you back in control.
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